


Drugs Are Bad For You

by Automobiles



Series: Oakmont [2]
Category: Original Work
Genre: NOAH IS A GOOD COUSIN
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-05
Updated: 2017-11-05
Packaged: 2019-01-30 02:06:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,534
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12643938
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Automobiles/pseuds/Automobiles
Summary: A preface to another event that sends the journalism crew at Oakmont reeling.Small drabble.





	Drugs Are Bad For You

"Hey."

It was around two-thirty on a November afternoon at Oakmont High. It was cold and cloudy, mostly how Noah Collins liked-- though he wished for snow. Snow was scarce in this region of the United States, but the boring white and red halls felt like a blizzard to him. 

Above all, all he had wanted upon that day was peace and quiet. Little did he know that peace and quiet would be a stranger to him. 

The girl pestering him at the moment was Georgette Collins, Colleen Samson's right hand man and known among the Plastiques as 'Gigi'. However, Noah knew the blonde girl as Georgie, his cousin. 

She always looked put together, with well-done makeup and dresses—even though she was only fifteen. Noah, however, wore a t-shirt and cardigan every day and barely remembered to run a hand through his hair in the morning. Though the two used to be quite close in their childhood, high school had made them drastically different.

Last night he had stayed up late several hours editing obligatory 'news' (Noah didn't find it to be real news) for Colleen and the school magazine, and had small dark shadows under his eyes. Already, he started off tired and a bit cranky--but Gigi either didn't notice or didn't care.

"Uh, hey...?" Noah really was surprised to see her. Gigi didn't like to be seen with those deemed 'inferior' by her friends.

Gigi's voice dripped with fake Valley-girl drawl. "Like, so, Colleen told me to tell you to tell Nicky not to post the pictures from Saturday because she doesn't like how they came out."

Noah stared at her blankly. "Will you speak English?" 

"Oh my Gosh, like, you KNOW what I'm talking about." Gigi rolled her eyes.

Noah did his best impersonation of her. "No, I, like, don't."

This only aggravated her further. "Just don't publish them, and you know why! We both know that there were, like, y'know... drugs," she whispered.

"Yeah, well. A story's a story, Georgie." Noah shut his locker and leaned against it.

Gigi wrinkled her nose. "Don't call me that."

Noah sighed. "I also know that you got into a bit of trouble on Saturday."

"You don't know anything, Noah," she sneered. Noah wasn't intimidated and only rolled his eyes.

"Just go away before I tell your mom." He started to leave, but her words froze him.

"Yeah, well, you'd only tell her because you can't tell your pathetic dad!"

Noah's dad--and Gigi's uncle--was a huge sore spot for him. He had left when Noah was just a child, and he had been feeling his absence ever since. Noah wheeled around. 

"Don't start this," he warned. Gigi knew how to really hurt him, and had taken up the habit of doing it often just to get a rise out of him.

"Look, Noah, I know you're jealous because you don't have a dad and you don't know what it's like, but that doesn't mean you can, like, fucking project on me and stuff! Leave my mom and me out of it, we haven't, like, done anything," Gigi drawled, half amused by Noah's reaction. 

"Oh, yeah? You wanna do this, Georgie?" He angrily pulled out his phone and opened his camera library. "I was gonna keep this a secret, but you might as well see how fucking awful your whole side of the family is." 

He showed her a picture of a woman, clear as day, walking with a dark man Gigi clearly did not recognize. She frowned. "What the fuck is this? Is that my mom?" She had totally dropped the fake accent.

"Sorry to say, Georgie, but Dominic and I were out and about on Friday and spotted your mom with another man," Noah said with seething casualty. 

She snapped back, "That's impossible. My mom was at the spa on Friday," Gigi looked like she was going to explode with either sadness or anger.

"Sorry again. That's another lie. Just more proof that my dad's side of the family is full of skanks." Noah locked his phone and began to walk away, fuming with anger--Gigi in tears.

"FUCK YOU, NOAH!" The hallway quieted down when Gigi screamed after him and stared. A huge part of Noah felt bad for telling her like this, but he was angry enough that he simply ignored it for the time being.

The day passed without other incident, but his conscience crept up on him as his anger subsided. After school and dropping off Jimmy and Dominic, he drove a few streets over to Gigi's house. Steeling himself, he knocked on the door.

To his surprise, Gigi's mom, Sheryl, answered the door. "Noah!" She looked just as surprised as he did. "What brings you here?"

The house was deceptively warm, and smelled like coconuts. There were a great many lamps around, illuminating the many picture frames of Gigi and her family plastered on the walls. The old furniture looked familiar and inviting in the light, but Noah wasn’t here to sit on the couch. 

Noah scratched the side of his nose. "Is Georgie here?" He really didn't want to spend a lot of time talking to Sheryl.

She nodded, and stepped aside to let him in. "She's in her room." Noah thanked her, and went and opened Gigi's door, not bothering to knock.

"What the hell do you want?" Gigi was sitting on her bed, cuddling an old teddy bear she had received as a child on Christmas. Noah noticed that when she wore sweatpants and t-shirts, she looked a lot more familiar. 

Noah sighed. "I came to apologize. I shouldn't have told you like that." 

Gigi relaxed a little bit. "Oh. Um, thanks, I guess. For telling me, that is."

"But," Noah continued, traces of soreness from the incident prior still evident in his eyes, "You can't just say anything you want and expect no consequences. The fact that you would even..." Noah was getting a bit emotional and had to pause for a moment. "The fact that you would bring up my father just to hurt me is really fucked up."

Gigi looked a tiny bit guilty, then was on the defensive. "You threatened me."

Noah threw his hands up in the air out of exasperation. "I did fucking not! Even if I did, that was a low blow, Georgie-"

"-I told you not to call me that-"

"-What the hell ever! You're a shitty person now that you hang out with those thots at school. Just think before you speak, okay?" And Noah left the room. 

As he was heading out of the living room, Sheryl stopped him. "Noah, can I talk to you?"

Noah stopped and huffed, "What?" He didn't mean to be rude, but frustration was overcoming him.

"Georgette came home very upset today. Do you have any idea why?" It was an innocent question coming from a guilty woman.

"Yeah, actually, I do," Noah said coolly. "She's upset because I told her about your love affair." Just then, Sheryl smacked Noah across the face, hard. 

She pulled him close by the collar of his shirt and whispered harshly, "Who have you told? You better not be publishing this, you little freak."

Noah laughed, despite the situation not being funny. "You and my dad are exactly the same." He pushed her off of him easily. "You have a family, Sheryl. Gigi knows, I know, Dominic knows, and soon your husband will know. Eat my ass." After that final word, Noah stormed out of the house and slammed the door shut. 

His cheek stung, badly. He knew it would bruise, but he didn't care. He was too mad about what had happened. Noah hastily opened the door of his car and turned the engine over. He sat in his car for a moment, feeling badly about the whole situation. After a few minutes, he just went home.

Gigi came up to him again the next morning before first period, with the same opening line. “Hey.”

Noah had no patience, though. “What?” he said, shutting his locker.

“I just came to say sorry, geez.” He felt a little guilty. Her eyes were a little puffy and red.

“I—sorry. Thanks. What do you need?” Noah rubbed his eye. God, he was tired.

Gigi folded her arms across her chest. “I need you to take me home after school. I mean, like, your house. Not mine.”

Noah was confused. “What? Why?”

“I told dad about… You know. And he got in a huge fight with mom. He told me to stay with you for a while.” Gigi looked uncomfortable, but Noah took pity on her.

“Okay. My mom is in Chicago for business this weekend, so it’ll just be us,” Noah explained, and Gigi nodded. “You are not allowed to invite people over.”

“What!? That’s so freaking unfair, Noah!” Gigi protested. “You’re gonna invite your friends over!” 

“Uh, yeah, which is why I don’t want a Plastique infestation in my house. I see enough of them at school.” Gigi rolled her eyes at him. He took this as his cue to leave, but Gigi stopped him one last time.

“Thanks, Noah.”


End file.
